


In Charge

by taggianto



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, Murder, Which is pretty much Mormor in a nutshell.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-23
Updated: 2012-05-23
Packaged: 2017-11-05 21:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/411202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taggianto/pseuds/taggianto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which something goes wrong and Sebastian's to blame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Charge

“Explain yourself, Moran.”

_Oh, this won’t be good,_ Sebastian thought to himself as he knelt on the rooftop. Jim wasn’t supposed to be here. He unscrewed the barrel of his rifle and packed it away in its case before turning and facing him.

The man’s eyes were hard and black as coal as he glared at Sebastian in the moonlight, hands in the pockets of his crisp grey suit. All traces of Jim, his lover, were gone. This was Moriarty, his boss, and he was furious. “Answer me,” he said, commanding. “Tell me exactly why I just got a call saying that you had given the order to withdraw.”

Sebastian stood straight – _at attention_ , he thought – somehow still managing to feel small under the intense gaze being directed at him. “Situation was compromised. Unintended witness, had to abort.” He glanced down at the ground. “Sir,” he added.

“A witness,” Jim repeated, voice low and deadly.

“Yes, sir. Perimeter was breached.”

“And whose fault was that?” he asked, rocking back on his heels.

“Jacobs was on –”

“NO!” Jim barked, causing Sebastian to flinch. Jim continued, his face twisted into a snarl. “ _You_ were the leader of this operation, Sebastian Moran, its failure rests _entirely_ on your shoulders.” He advanced on Sebastian, stopping only when he was well within Sebastian’s space, nearly touching. Sebastian stood stock still and didn’t even dare to breathe. “I should have you shot,” Jim said, contempt dripping on every word.

Sebastian’s heart sank. He didn’t fear death, but the disappointment in Jim’s voice ripped through him with more pain than any bullet ever could.

Jim ran his eyes up and down Sebastian, a sneer still on his lips. “Don’t even think about coming home tonight. You set foot in that flat, I _will_ kill you.” With a quick turn, Jim marched back to the stairwell door, leaving Sebastian alone and broken in the night.

\---

Sebastian slid his keycard through the slot by the door handle and heard the lock flip open with a click. This hotel room was one of the several in London that Jim kept reserved as a safehouse. All Sebastian had had to do was flash his ID at the greasy man behind the counter and he’d gotten the keycard pressed into his hand. He pushed through the hotel room door, dropping his rifle case on the floor by the bathroom. He didn’t bother to flick on the lights, just dragged himself over to the small bed and flopped onto his back.

Everything was beige. The walls were beige, the bedspread was beige, even the fucking lampshades were beige. There was no personality here. It was nondescript, it was blank. Sebastian hated it.

He rolled onto his side and stared at the clock radio on the side table. 2:37am. Sebastian’s head swam, running over every excruciating detail of the night. Briefing the team. Setting up the hit. Lining up his sights. Then the call from Woodson that Jacobs was not at his post. The perimeter was breached. The order to withdraw. Jim on the rooftop.

Something caught in his throat as the image of Jim filled his mind. No, not Jim. Moriarty. He shook his head to try to clear it away, it was just too raw. The disappointment in his voice. The way he’d looked at him with those cold, dark eyes, so distant, so furious. That sneer, his dismissal. God, he fucking hated this. That prat Jacobs, he knew he shouldn’t have brought him onto this mission but he’d needed a third scout… He reached out an arm and flipped on the radio. Maybe some music would help…

_…you didn't have to cut me off,  
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing  
And I don't even need your love…_

Nope.

_…quarter after one, I'm all alone and I need you now.  
Said I wouldn't call but I lost all control and I need you now.  
And I don't know h…_

Nope.

_Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I’m only falling apart.  
There’s nothing I can do, total eclip…._

Maybe music wasn’t such a good idea right now. He switched off the radio with a huff, rolled onto his back and waited for sleep that would not come.

The next two days brought no word from Jim.

Sebastian spent his time going about the daily tasks that being second-in-command to a criminal empire entailed – interviewing potential foot soldiers, checking into the research efforts of the latest forgery campaign, meeting on several boards and committees. It was simply the essential yet mind-numbing drudgery that Jim couldn’t be bothered to look after personally. After all, it wasn’t like they murdered someone _every_ day. Sometimes the banking just needed to get done.

Finally, on the third day, he got a text from Jim. _Take care of Jacobs,_ it said, followed by a coded address and time. His heart leaped in his throat and he quickly went about setting up the hit. He did as he was told, executing the bastard simply but effectively with a bullet to the back of the head in the middle of the field Jim had specified.

Once the body had been disposed, he sent a text of his own. _Can I come home now?_

There was no reply.

\--

The long days and even longer nights were starting to wear on him. It had been almost a week now since that night on the rooftop, with no communication from Jim save the single text about Jacobs. Sebastian still got his orders and his schedule, but they arrived by courier. During the day, he went through the motions – he was a soldier at his core and there were duties to perform – but the nights stretched on endlessly, full of beige walls and beige curtains and bloody beige blankets.

He was beginning to wonder if he would ever get to go home when he got another text – Jim wanted him to head up the Siberian heist. At last, a distraction.

Two days later, the job was done and everything had gone off without a hitch thanks to Sebastian’s paranoid command. Sebastian had been awake for 46 hours straight by the time he got back to London. This, coupled with the fact he hadn’t exactly been sleeping much at all for the better part of a week meant that when Sebastian returned to that damn hotel room he passed out as soon as he hit the mattress.

When he awoke, the midday sun was streaming in through beige blinds. He felt rested at last, and warm. Very warm. A little too warm, in fact. He slowly became aware of a weight draped across his chest. Hoping against hope, he opened one eye and glanced down.

Jim.

Sebastian froze as a wave of electricity coursed through his body. Jim’s face was turning toward his, those large, impossibly dark eyes locking on his own. He looked tired. Clearly the week apart hadn’t been easy for Jim either.

And then Sebastian was grabbing at the man at his side, wrapping his arms around him, pulling him up and in for a needy kiss because _god_ he’d missed that mouth. He ran his hands along Jim’s back, up his neck, through his hair, pulling him closer in a need to rediscover everything he’d been missing. Jim, for his part, seemed just as eager to reacquaint himself with Sebastian’s body, running his tongue along the man’s jaw and biting greedily at his neck before recapturing Sebastian’s mouth.

They broke their kiss at last, breathing a bit heavier, staring into each other’s eyes. After a minute, Jim brought his fist down and into one of Sebastian’s ribs with a thud.

“Hey, ow!” Sebastian called out, more due to surprise than any actual pain. “What the hell was that for?”

 “Don’t you ever make me punish you like that again.” Jim fixed him with a serious stare before pulling him back into a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Started as a one-word prompt fill for my dearest [hannah_baker](http://archiveofourown.org/users/hannah_baker/pseuds/hannah_baker) that got a little angsty, so I wrote a follow up that got very fluffy.
> 
> [Find me on the tumblrz!](http://taggianto.tumblr.com)


End file.
